Tempered in Justice
by Nu-Klear
Summary: A chance encounter with Ethan Rayne before Halloween sets off a chain of events no one could have predicted
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Ethan walked down the alley to the back door of his shop and frowned as he realized the idiot of a vampire that had been following him for the last block had decided this was its chance. The mage was summoning his magic in preparation to destroy the foolish creature when the loud crack of wood connecting with flesh filled the alleyway; Ethan turned and blinked in surprise at the sight of a dark-haired young man shoving the end of a broken board into the back of the prone vampire.

After the vampire had turned to dust - taking the board with it, the young man shrugged and gave him a lopsided grin. "You really shouldn't be out after dark in this town and I would avoid dark alleys altogether…"

"I don't know what that thing was but I thank you for your assistance. I don't know how I could ever repay you…" Ethan said forcing a grateful expression on his face to hide his annoyance at being lectured about the danger of this town by a whelp like him. Faking a pleased expression the chaos mage reached into his jacket and pulled out a card as he muttered a spell. "I know… I just opened a costume shop; actually it opens for its first day of business tomorrow, but I digress. If you should find yourself needing a costume stop by and anything within reason in the shop is yours for the asking, and if it's unreasonable I will give you as much of a discount as I possibly can."

"Thanks, I don't think anyone's ever tried to reward me before…" Xander said, a pleasantly surprised grin almost splitting his face in two as he walked off sliding the card into his pocket. "I doubt I'll need a costume but thanks for the attempt…"

"You're welcome…" Ethan watched the young man until he disappeared around the corner, and shook his head in disgust. When the young man had given him that smile, it had almost made the mage feel sorry for setting him up like that. Sighing at silliness of it all he turned and unlocked the door to his shop. "Oh well, such is the Chaos that is my life…"

X~X~X~X~X

~ Great, this is turning out to be the worse Halloween, EVER! And I still get to look forward to escorting a group of sugar-hyped little monsters around all evening… I thought this kind of thing was against the Geneva Convention! ~ Xander fumed as he paged through a musty old book, or tome as Giles insisted they were called, trying to figure out how Principal Snyder had managed to spot and corner him in the flood of students entering the school when the bell went off, but he had and he had quickly become the first 'student volunteer' for the safety program.

And when he had finally caught up to Buffy and Willow, planning to warn them about Snyder's take on the concept of volunteering, Xander was treated to having to listen to Buffy moan about her need to find some way to impress Angel and how badly her date with him went before he could make his escape.

Now it was his free period so Xander had come to the library to see if Giles could give him any help with the troll or at least help him come up with an idea for a costume. Instead he found the red faced Watcher yelling at someone over the phone. The original Scooby had tuned him out when he started in on them about how 'they should be thankful they were just copies and not the originals' figuring that something had happened to a shipment of his precious books.

Xander closed the tome he had been flipping through on the table and pushed it towards the stack of others that had been taken from the crate and had to say he didn't blame the librarian. The book he had just gone through looked like the notebook a couple of bullies had thrown in a puddle in the sixth grade, pages sticking together and warped with all the words running together; even most of the pictures couldn't be made out as more than whirly blobs.

The book slid across the table much easier than Xander expected and the young man winced as it connected with stack of tomes hard enough to cause two of them to fall to the table. Taking a quick glance at Giles, Xander let out a sigh of relief at finding the librarian's yelling must have covered what little sound made by the their fall. Getting up Xander quickly walked around the table, straightened the stack of books, reached for the two that had fallen and stopped as a picture one of them had opened to caught his eye.

After putting the other book on the stack, Xander picked up the book and took a better look at the picture that had caught his attention.

X~X~X~X~X

Giles placed the handset in the cradle firmly, his anger all but gone after his venting at the Council's shipping department and receiving a promise from the terrified department supervisor of a replacement shipment of fresh new copies being sent by the council's fastest means ASAP. Giles rubbed his eyes tiredly for a moment as he contemplated whether or not he should start the lessons he had planned for Buffy now or wait for copies of the books to arrive first.

After a moment the librarian just sighed, deciding to go with something else for all the good it would do him. He was starting to worry about Buffy; she refused to focus on anything having to do with being the Slayer unless it had to do with fighting. She just couldn't seem to understand that there was more to being a Slayer than just 'beat on the thing that isn't human until it stopped moving' and that way of thinking could very well come back to bite her on the ass. There were many non-humans out there that were neither evil nor likely to put up with being attacked for no reason and more than a few of them had enough power to crush a Slayer like swatting an insect.

Giles sighed as he put on his glasses, turned to go re-crate the damaged tomes for disposal and finally saw Xander standing by the table. The librarian frowned in annoyance when he saw the young man with one of the tomes, as he had already had Buffy come into the library and bother him earlier.

She had been acting more than a little peculiar, even for a teenage girl from California, so after she had left and the Watcher had had time to think about it, he had done an inventory of his personal collection. Luckily for her he had been distracted by the arrival of a shipment of books from the council and had worked off most of his displeasure on the incompetents responsible for shipping them in such a haphazard way. So rather than chewing her out and then informing her mother that she had snuck into his office and taken one of his personal possessions without permission, he would just give her a firm lecture and double her patrols.

Giles was about to tear into the young man for thinking he would fall for the same trick twice in one day, when he saw the way the young man was studying the book. The watcher smirked, letting his annoyance slip away for the moment at the open curiosity the young man was showing, and moved up beside him so he could see what had caught his interest and make sure it was nothing more than curiosity that was causing Xander to study the book so intently.

X~X~X~X~X

Xander hid a wince as he saw Giles out of the corner of his eye.

"I see you've finally found something that was able to catch your attention..." Giles light tone and amused smile caught the young man off guard causing him to reply reflexively as he would to his friends.

"What can I say, it's got picture so at least there is something I can understand in this one…" Xander wilted slightly under the glare he received in reply and attempted to change the subject. "You wouldn't happen to know who this is, would you."

Giles took the book from him and studied the picture and the small amount of text still visible for a moment before shaking his head and making an educated guess based on the part of the text that remained readable. "I'm afraid I don't remember much, actually, but supposedly he was a great guardian of humanity…"

"Cool," Xander smiled looked down at the picture again and then blinked as Giles closed the book.

"Xander," Giles patently waited until Xander's gaze returned to him, before speaking. "You are hardly stupid, and I would like you to stop referring to yourself as such. It may sound old fashioned but I firmly believe that if you say something of that nature about yourself often enough, you can come to believe it to be true."

"Take it, there was nothing dangerous written in it, most of the information within is beyond reading anyway and the council has assured me that a replacement copy will arrive sometime tomorrow…" That said Giles offered the book to the surprised young man with serious expression that softened when he saw Xander wilt slightly when told the damage that had been done to the book. "And since you seem to have taken an interested in the subject, I will acquire or make you an undamaged copy at the earliest opportunity. However, until I obtain one for you I will allow you to read the copy I receive tomorrow within the bounds of the library."

Xander looked at the librarian for a moment before taking the book cautiously. "Thanks…"

"Think nothing of it," Giles shrugged and smiled "it's a pleasure to help someone in expanding their horizons…"

X~X~X~X~X

"It's not like he asked why I looking at it…" Xander muttered as he walked down the street, his head hung making it clear that he was feeling guilty over not telling Giles that he had only been interested in the book because he thought the picture was kind of cool and letting the watcher go on thinking his interested in it went beyond that. Although he did admit it might be interesting to learn more about whoever that is in the picture. It wasn't every day that he heard Giles say that somebody that was obviously not supposed to be human referred to as a 'guardian of humanity'; guys like that were usually called something more along the lines of 'eater of humans' or 'ender of world'.

Xander stopped as he realized he was in front of the costume shop they had agreed to meet at, or rather Buffy and Willow had all but ordered him to meet them at after they had told him how Snyder had grabbed them for the program. Checking his watch Xander saw he was actually pretty early so he decided to check the place out before they got there and promptly wished the earth would open up and swallow him whole as he recognized the man that had just finished helping a customer as he turned and spotted the original Scooby.

Ethan Rayne smiled when he saw the uncomfortable young man that had just entered his shop. "Well hello again my young friend, should I take your presence here to mean that you wish to take me up on my offer?"

"Yeah, sure I guess…" Xander looked around uncomfortably, desperately try to think of a way out of this that wouldn't insult the man or make look like he was charging the guy for saving his life. "I have a set of surplus fatigues at home, so I was thought I'd just grab a toy gun and go as soldier…"

Ethan's surprised expression slowly changed into a frown. "Are you trying to insult me?"

"Huh? What… No!" Xander babbled in confusion at the man's anger.

"Well, how else am I supposed to take your believing that saving my life is only worth a two dollar toy gun?" Ethan asked, his anger only half faked over the unintentional snub. "Now I'll have you know that the life of Ethan Rayne is worth much more than that, so you're not leaving here until you have the best, most exuberant costume you can possibly come up with. And I will settle for nothing less."

"Ah, okay…" Xander cursed the old Harris luck for getting him into this while mind raced for a costume idea or for a way out of this as he began to wilt slightly under the irate man's heated gaze. Finally hitting on inspiration that should let him off the hook, at least a little 'cause he doubted the shopkeeper would have the items needed for it on hand. Reaching into his pack Xander pulled out the book Giles had given him and opened it to the picture of the warrior. "How about that…?"

"Let me see," Ethan looked at the picture for a moment, before taking the book from the young man and nodding with a confident air as he started for the backroom, giving the girl running the cash register a wave to let her know he was heading for the backroom again. "I'll see what I can do; I believe I have most of items necessary in the backroom. Still this might take a while, feel free to look around the shop until I return…"

Xander watched the man go with a slightly case of the wiggins, but shook them off as just left over nerves and adrenaline from the man's reaction to his first costume choice. Just because the man was confident, he could come up with the unusual costume was no reason to suspect him of anything hellmouth-y.

"Bloody American brat, try to brush me off with a toy gun, will he…" Ethan muttered as gathered what he needed from the damaged or surplus costumes stored in the shop's backroom; a quick spell on the pieces of samurai armor and other items made the necessary cosmetic alterations to give them the desired appearance; then gathering all the power he could and still be sure he would be able to perform the ritual that evening, he cast the spell preparing it for that evening.

When he was finished Ethan looked over the costume and grinned, though he wasn't sure what the young man would be turning into once he completed the ritual, but one thing he was for certain, with the amount of power he had placed in that costume he was in for a wild night.

X~X~X~X~X

Xander gritted his teeth, doing his best to ignore the fact that Buffy and Willow were standing on the other side of the rack talking about the walking corpse and how the slayer could get some more cuddle time with something, that in his opinion, she should have just staked. Willow had arrived a few minutes before Buffy and hurried to greet her, paper bag in hand.

"So what did you get?" Buffy asked, not able to stop herself from smiling at her friend's grin, when she finally noticed the bag Willow was carrying.

"A time honored classic…" Willow said happily pulling out her purchase out of the bag to show her friend.

Xander grinned already knowing what it was; Willow had worn a ghost costume almost every Halloween for as long as he'd known her.

"Willow," Buffy slowly lost her smile as she looked at her friend's costume "can I give you some advice…"

"What? Not scary enough?" Willow glanced down at the package with a frown.

"I think you're missing the whole point of Halloween…" Buffy smiled taking the ghost costume from her.

"Free candy?" Willow asked with a big grin.

"It's 'come as you aren't' night," Buffy shook her head and smirked. "The one night a girl can get wild and crazy without any consequences."

"Oh no, I don't do wild…" Willow snatched back the ghost costume and clutched it to her as she shook her head with a terrified expression. "Wild on me equals spaz…!"

"He's never going to notice you if you keep hiding." Buffy said in exasperation, smiled as she saw Willow was starting to waver. "Trust me, a little makeup, a change of clothes, when I'm finished one look at you and Xander or any other guy that sees you will go completely non-verbal. Easy pickings you just have to go in for the kill…"

"Are, are you sure?" Willow asked not letting go of the ghost costume but obviously starting to cave. "I, how would I…"

"It's easy, once your looks have him speechless; you just go up to him and…" Buffy looked near to cheering as she began to outline her plan to Willow.

Xander almost had to bite his tongue off to avoid screaming at the pair in frustration that as far as he was concerned Willow was his sister and he wasn't into incest when the Slayer started to help the hacker in her quest to 'get' him.

Luckily that was when the shopkeeper showed up at the counter with his costume, and Xander was able to make his escape before he could forget himself and say something that, while true, would probably have hurt his friends deeply and damaged their friendship severely.

Xander pretended not to hear the pair calling his name as he took the two large bags Ethan handed him and with a hurried thanks left the shop, not sure he could keep a civil tongue after hearing his 'friends' planning out his love life behind his back as if his feeling on the subject didn't matter at all, on top of the humiliation of having Buffy save him from Larry this morning in front of half the freaking school.

X~X~X~X~X

Buffy watched her Xander-shaped friend as he took the bags the middle-aged man, that had been helping them a moment ago, offered him before leaving the shop, seemingly without hearing them call him. Buffy frowned, she wasn't stupid no matter how much she might act like the stereotypical airhead valley-girl; the store wasn't that big and while busy, it wasn't packed so barring a sudden bout of deafness he shouldn't have had any problems hearing her. She would have chalked it up to him still being mad over her saving him from Larry during lunch if it hadn't been for Willow's pained expression.

If not for Willow's lifetime of studying him, she might have been able to convince herself that Xander hadn't heard them. But one look at the way his body language had changed when she and then Buffy called out to him had been enough to tell that yes he had heard them but he was really mad and he wanted nothing to do with them at the moment.

"Here you are, my lady. All ready to go…" Ethan said cheerfully doing his best to come off as nothing but a kindly shopkeeper, while still taking great pleasure in the way both girls started out of their respective thoughts before smiling their thanks at him and hurriedly leaving his shop.

X~X~X~X~X

Later that night

Xander knew it had been unfair of him, to take his anger and frustration out on his girls, even indirectly as he had at the costume shop, but he was finding it hard to care. His day had been a pain before the incident with Buffy and Larry, the teasing he had gotten for the rest of the day over that hadn't helped, and then overhearing them talking about getting him to notice Willow had been the last straw. In the morning he knew he would feel bad about how he was acting and probably apologize to them, but at the moment he didn't want to be anywhere near them.

Contrary to what his friends obviously believed Xander was neither blind nor stupid; anybody that wasn't blind could tell she was far from hard on the eyes, although her intelligence intimidated most guys into avoiding her. Even before the hyena possession he had been aware of her crush on him but just couldn't bring himself to feel that way about her as anything but a sister. He also knew that if he flat out told her that she would have been crushed and unless he was willing to distance himself from her afterwards she would think she still had a chance.

He had dropped some subtle hints over the years leading up to Buffy's arrival and what should have been the equivalent of several blatant blows to the head since then, thinking that the smartest person he knew should have been able to figure it out. Asking a girl to help you practice for another girl was usually a clear sign they weren't interested in you!

Finally dropping his mental rant, Xander held up the book to compare what he saw in the mirror with the picture in the book and smiled; although it wasn't perfect he was pleased with the results. Xander picked up the last two items to his costume and shoved the swords into his belt as he left his room and made his way out of the house.

Had he bothered to look into the living room he would have been treated to seeing his father wet himself as he followed Xander's path out of the house with a wide-eyed stare. Xander's mother blinked as for the first time she could remember when she asked Tony if he was alright he didn't explode in a fit of temper or violence, but rather just told her he was fine, climbed to his feet and went to stare out of the window with a haunted expression.

X~X~X~X~X

"Buffy, you're going to be late!" Joyce called as she gathered her purse, smiled as she heard her daughter come down the stairs. "Well I hope you're ready to go princess, because if you don't leave soon you're carriage is going to spoil…"

"Yeah, we're ready to go, you really gotta see Willow costume mom, she's…" Buffy called out cheerfully from the entrée, and missed seeing her mother's entrance by turning to watch Willow come down the stairs and let a note of disapproval enter her voice as Willow froze on the steps. "Casper."

"You both look great!" Joyce looked the ghost over and smiled. "I always loved the classics… That's a nice boo, Willow."

"Thanks mom…" Buffy sighed and rolled her eyes as she turned to say good bye to her mother, only to have her eyes bulge as she blushed redder than Willow looking at an adult magazine or nearly as red as the hacker was at the moment. "MOM!"

"Yes, Buffy?" Joyce smiled at her daughter's reaction to her costume, the sheer light green silk of the harem girl outfit's leggings and top showed off almost every inch of her beautiful skin, while the bikini-like garments worn underneath kept the important part from being seen, while the pointed tips glued to her ears stuck out of her wild hair.

She had been upset that she would have to miss the costume party a friend of hers was throwing, do to having a trip to LA she had to take for the gallery; but when her trip to LA had fallen through and Buffy staying at Willow's, she had made the decision to go that started a mad dash to find a costume for the party which soon led to her finding herself at the only place that wasn't sold out a new place called 'Ethan's costumes'.

At first Joyce had been hesitant of the costume, even with the shopkeeper's flirting reassurances and encouragement, because the entire costume was completely sheer and while she might want to turn heads she didn't want to be arrested for indecency.

However upon giving in to his request to at least try it on she found that while you could see through the skin tight bikini-like garments, when the billowy leggings and top were worn over them the sheer fabric suddenly became opaque, concealing her as good as the swim suit she had regularly worn to the beach until life had made going to the beach a luxury she didn't have time for.

After seeing that it would keep her decent it had only taken her a moment, of looking at how the costume had made her look, to decide to get it, the ears she had added to give it an even more exotic look. Joyce mentally shivered at the naughty feeling the thought that everything she was wearing was in reality see through gave her; she hadn't had any companionship since well before her divorce and the odds of finding a man interested in a relationship with a thirty-five year old single mother, make winning the lotto twice in a row look easy, even in California!

As much as she knew that it was frowned on for single mothers, let alone women her age, to go looking for anything less than a serious long term relationship; but with Buffy going to be staying at Willow's after they finished guiding the trick-or-treaters Joyce figured she could take a chance. She would have the house to herself for the night, so she figured that if something happened, it happened and she wasn't going to let what somebody else thought was 'proper' bother her, unless it would hurt Buffy.

Buffy's mouth opened and closed for a few moments before giving her a weak smile. "N-nice costume…"

"Thank you, Buffy, now you had better get a move on or you'll be late." Joyce smile turned into a full-fledged grin as she watched them leave. "And remember the party ends at nine so if you need to get hold of me before then you'll need to call my cell…"

"No problem, mom." Buffy said as she walked started towards the school throwing confused and incredulous looks back at her house every few moments until it was out of sight.

X~X~X~X~X

Skipping his planned visit to Buffy's house, Xander was able to get to the school, pick up his group of kids and leave without running into Buffy or Willow. His temper had finally cooled enough that he was beginning to feel the first twinges of guilt over how he had treated them, fortunately he now had something else to occupy this thought and keep his mind off of that uncomfortable subject.

~ Okay, those two are officially starting to creep me out! ~ Xander thought as another glance told him that, yes, the pair of kids that had been staring at him in awe, almost from the moment he picked them up, were at it again. While Xander would have admitted his costume was eye-catching, he didn't think it was worth the kind of attention it was getting from them and a few of the people they had passed.

"Okay, you two… what's up?" Xander asked, finally having had enough, as he turned to look at the kids that were staring at him. "Why are you staring at me like that?"

The identically dressed kids, each having pointy ears and a bushy tail attached to the back of their pants looked at each other then looked up at him and smiled as the answered in unison. "We really like your costume, sir."

"Um, thanks…" Xander looked away from them and shrugged, a little unnerved both by their answering in stereo and their calling him 'sir'. "I guess we have time to for a few more houses before we have to head back."

The kids nodded and fell into line with the others beside him as he led them towards the next house in search of sweets to extort.

They had just reached the final house when Xander felt a chill run down his spine.

X~X~X~X~X

Ethan's Costumes

Kneeling before the bust of Janus sitting on the makeshift altar in the back of his shop, Ethan Rayne tilted his head back and opened his eyes with a demented smile. "Showtime…"

The chaos mage's eyes went wide a split second before a burst of power from the bust sent him flying into the main part of the store. Slowly climbing to his feet, Ethan shook his head to clear it and slowly made his way over to the doorway and peeked into the backroom. Seeing the bust back to the usual glowing eyes, Rayne frowned and rubbed the bump slowly rising on the back of his head. ~ What the hell was that about? That's never happened before… ~

X~X~X~X~X

A wave of energy swept across the hellmouth leaving chaos in its wake as everyone it came into contact with that was wearing something from Ethan's shop changed in its wake. Monsters and villains that a moment before had been normal people attacked their stunned friends and families, while heroes from comics, movies and television rushed to save them, and people that had been wearing more neutral costumes just tried to get out of the way.

On one street an angel drew a flaming sword and began to battle three red skinned pitchfork wielding devils as a group of fairies jumped to her aid; elsewhere a Valkyrie and Wolverine of the X-Men tore into the group of monsters that were trying to eat the others at the party they found themselves suddenly attending, and still elsewhere Magneto found himself fighting side by side with Captain America, Superman and Spawn against Apocalypse and a growing number of Borg.

Xander looked around the chaos wildly looking for a place to take the children where they would be safe when he felt his body pulse a split second before his world disappeared in a wave of burning pain. The terrified children watched as Xander changed, growing until he was at least six inches taller while his muscles increased in both strength and mass as fangs, claws, facial markings and hair took the place of their fake counterparts. Then the transformation was over and a confused set of golden eyes snapped open. The warrior looked around and snarled warningly at the madness going on around him as he grabbed the hilt of one of the swords at his hip. ~ Where am I? ~

The warrior tried to search his memories for how he had gotten to his current location, and growled at the lack of answers the hazy fog that seemed to fill his mind at the moment provided him with. ~ I must have taken a blow to the head… But who or what would have the power to deal such a blow to me? ~

A child's crying caused the hardened warrior to turn and stare at the group of terrified children huddled behind him. Taking another look at the chaos around him, the warrior cursed the parents foolish enough to allow their offspring to go out in this madness…

While something within him demanded he protect the young ones, the presence of two Kitsune pups among the human children made it a matter of honor no matter how much it surprised him that the fox clan would allow their young to risk mingling so freely with humans. "Children, come with me…"

One of the Kitsune looked up at him, eyes wide and swallowed hard before hesitantly speaking. "Where are you taking us?"

"Inside, and out of this madness…" The warrior smiled kindly at the child, before scanning the area and muttering darkly. "Where are the soldiers? Has the lord of this village gone mad?"

After quickly gathering the children the warrior led them to the nearest dwelling and pounded on the door. Scanning the area for dangers, he took note of this building and the ones surrounding it. He didn't recognize the way they were built but judging from the craftsmanship they must have been the homes of either rich merchants or minor nobles. The warrior smiled as he realized his memories were becoming clearer; slowly, true, but the fog hiding them from him was lifting.

Losing patience, the warrior reached to pound on the door again when a woman's voice asked what he wanted. "I have a group of children in need of refuge. Will you grant them the protection of this house?"

There was a moment's hesitation, before there was a series of clicks and the door opened to reveal a dark- haired human woman. She glanced towards the children as she stepped aside to allow them to enter.

X~X~X~X~X

Jenny Calendar frowned at the warrior standing at her door, watching him closely as the children slowly entered. Her head was still pounding from the wave of magic that had passed by only minutes earlier but something about him was putting her on edge.

Whoever he was couldn't have been out of his twenties; he had elfin features right down to the pointed ears. On each cheek he had a single violet slash-like marking that came from the hair above each ear, arched down and followed each of his cheekbones to end below the corner of his eye. His long silvery-white hair was tied back into a loose ponytail with a blue cord that hung past his waist, except for a wild bangs that fell over his golden slit-pupilled eyes.

The warrior had two swords thrust through the violet sash-like belt at his waist, with a third strapped across his back with the bone-like hilt sticking out over his right shoulder so that the softball sized gem-like sphere placed in the pommel could be clearly seen. Over his white-with-blue-trim formal kimono he was wearing some kind of armor that vaguely resembled a samurai's and a cape of white fur that was spilt starting at his waist giving him the vague appearance of having two tails.

His armor consisted of a black and gray chest plate which had a curved spike on either side of a red diamond shaped gem in the center and wrapped completely around his torso, a set of shoulder guards made up of five connected plates of increasing size that ran up his biceps to the top of his shoulder and a set of forearm guards that came down to cover the back of his hands. Each of his shoulder guards had five spikes; the plates on his bicep had a single curved spike, each getting larger as it went up until the plate that covered the curve of the shoulder, which had no spike. On the plate that came up over his shoulder were the final two spikes-the largest ones- ending at the same level as his ear.

As the last child crossed the threshold, the warrior stepped through the door and every one of her wards broke like wet Kleenex trying to stop a bowling ball.

The techno-pagan paled as she watched the being that had just entered her house. As he looked around her living room, clearly checking for dangers, she could feel power unlike anything she had ever encountered before pouring off him like a waterfall and it was steadily rising, quickly growing towards levels she had never believed possible. The warrior finally nodded, turned to fix her with a gaze that seemed to pierce her very soul demanding obedience. "Listen well, Sorceress, if any harm befalls these young ones you will taste my wrath!"

"Very well," Hackles rising as the warrior turned and made his way to the door, his back to her as if dismissing her from his mind, Janna Kalderash crossed her arms and scowled as she planned exactly how she was going to get even for that slight. "Might I have the name of the person whose wrath I am to be afraid of…?"

"If you must address me, you may do so as InuTaishou…" The warrior said without bothering to turn as he stepped out of the door, closing it behind him.

The Romanian woman stared at the closed door for a moment, blinked and swallowed hard before beginning to recast the wards on the apartment. Once she was finished Ms. Calendar walked into her kitchen, for the moment ignoring the children that were now huddled in fear in her living room or trying to figure out the satellite remote, pulled a bottle that was a gift from one of her cousins from the back of a cabinet and poured herself a good strong drink.

Downing the glass in one long swallow, the teacher mused that the school would hardly approve of her drinking with children present but found she couldn't bring herself to care what anyone might think at the moment. After all it isn't everyday that you find yourself with someone thought to be death for over 700 years, who happens to possibly be one of the most powerful beings to ever exist, in your living room.


	2. Chaos Theory

"She couldn't have dressed like Xena…" Willow muttered even as she mentally cursed whatever was responsible for this mess as she ran towards the library for all she was worth. She was both angry and glad over having worn her usual ghost costume instead of what Buffy had been trying to get her to wear.

The redheaded hacker was glad because it seemed that none of the people turned monsters were able to harm her as a ghost, plus she didn't even want to think about what she might have turned into if she had only been wearing what Buffy had loaned her; she was angry because once she had found her friend 'Lady Buffy' had called her a whore and tried to slap her when she tried to explain that they were friends.

Buffy's expression, when her hand passed harmlessly through Willow's face, had been priceless and probably matched the Hacker's own right up until the slayer had screamed hysterically and ran off into the darkness before the ghost could recover from the shock of seeing Buffy's hand pass through her.

After several fruitless minutes searching for her, Willow had decided she needed to get to Giles and hope whoever, Buffy had turned into could keep herself alive long enough for them to figure out and stop whatever was going on.

X~X~X~X~X

Joy cowered under a table as the strangely dressed wild man and the armored warrior woman battled the monsters attacking the party, trying to figure out how she was going to explain her disappearance from his side at the auction house to her master, let alone how she had managed find herself in the middle of a battlefield. If the beating the man who was looking to be her new master had threatened to give her for introducing herself without permission was any indication she was going to need one damn good excuse to keep from winding up a sacrificial offering, if she was lucky.

Suddenly the yellow and blue clad wild man smashed through one of the nearby tables; he laid there in the remains of the table in an unmoving heap. The silvery claws slid into the backs of his hands as one of the largest monsters approached him and raised his claws to strike at the warrior only to be distracted by a glass bottle hitting it on the side of its head.

The elfin harem girl looked at her arm in horror; she had no idea how or why that had just happened. Her arm had just picked up the nearby bottle and thrown it on its own accord. Slowly her eyes went from her arm to the towering form of the monster which had turned to face her and glared down at her, eyes narrowing.

The monster snarled, exposing its fangs at the already terrified Joy and the young elf snapped. Screaming in blind terror she turned and started to run blindly in an attempt to get as far away from the thing as she could possibly get.

Sabertooth, his blood still running hot from his battle with the runt, licked his lips at the sight of the fleeing prey. His mind quickly filled with the images of all the fun he could have both running her down and after catching her, before killing her.

The familiar sound of metal scraping against metal from behind him caused the sociopath to dodge to the side so instead of taking his head off, Wolverine's claws merely laid open his neck, his carotid artery spraying blood across the room. As he moved to capitalize on the injury Wolverine spared the retreating girl's back a look of uncharacteristic gratitude, silently hoping she found some where safe to hide until this was over.

X~X~X~X~X

The Dog General walked through the streets. Although he dispatched all those foolish enough to attack him, battle was not was not what he sought. He was searching for something that would tell him what was going on. While it was true that the Youkai of his homeland occasionally attacked human settlements there was always a reason for it such as needing food or goods, gathering riches and slaves, retribution for a wrong against their clan, or to acquire some relic or mystical item the humans had found that the demons thought could increase their power.

But this was like no raid or attack he had ever heard of; there was no sanity to it at all. The demons weren't searching for anything and weren't feeding on their kills. They were behaving like a pack of rabid animals, destroying and killing with no apparent pattern or reason.

Inutaishou shook his head, unsure which disgusted him more- the obvious lack of the lord of the village's soldiers trying to protect his subjects or the behavior of the demons that were attacking this place. The Youkai lord shuddered at the thought of anyone considering these beasts to be like him in anyway.

A scream snapped the Dog General out of his unpleasant thoughts; he spun towards the screaming right hand dropping to grip the hilt of one of the swords at his waist and saw a demon of some kind chasing a strangely clad woman straight towards him. Without even thinking about it Inutaishou cleared the space between him and the unknown demon in the blink of an eye. The warrior drew his sword, the blade transforming so that it was roughly the same size as the young woman before him and vaguely shaped like a fang, then smiled at the surprised look on the demon's face as he cut it in half.

Inutaishou slid the Tetsusaiga back into its sheath as he walked to kneeling woman, who was looking up at him with awe. "Are you injured?"

The woman blinked, shook her head and blushed deeply as she took a deep breath to compose herself. "No, kind sir, I am fine…"

"Good," the Youkai lord nodded, offered his hand and assisted her in rising to her feet. "Come, I will take you somewhere where you will be safe."

She smiled, looked at the ground as she blushed and slid her arm into that of her rescuer. "I thank you… again."

Inutaishou was surprised by the young woman's sudden romantic overture. Given her bearing and the quality of her clothes he had assumed her a member of a noble family, but he smiled as he caught both her poorly concealed glances at him and the combination of fear and arousal in her scent.

Several blocks and many dead attackers later the Dog General's eyes fell on a house which looked almost the same as every other he had passed, but when he saw it the same thing that had told him to protect the children spoke up once more telling him this was a place of safety.

Leading the young woman to it, Inutaishou paused for a moment to contemplate the meaning of, or reason for, the 1630 written on the wall of the building before he opened the door and escorted the noblewoman inside. She started to move deeper into the house, only to come to a stop when Inutaishou began to gently remove his arm from hers. "You will be safe here, until this madness passes…"

The Youkai lord felt her hands tighten on his and paused at the doe-like expression she was giving him and sighed. "I will insure there are no dangers before I leave, my lady…"

The lady nodded and released Inutaishou's arm but stayed close to him as he moved from room to room checking for threats to alleviate her fears. At each door or window the Youkai lord paused to touch it while murmuring something too low for his companion to hear.

Finding nothing, the Dog General and the noble woman returned to what he assumed to be some kind of greeting hall, despite what looked like a raised bed under the window. "There are no enemies within and I have placed seals of protection on the entrances of this manor; nothing shall enter to do you harm. You have the word of the Taiyoukai Inutaishou, Inu no Taisho and ruler of the Western lands."

"I thank you again, my lord…" she glanced up quickly and blushed, "and now a small reward for your actions."

The lady stepped forward, placed her hands against his chest for balance, rose on her toes and stretched as far as she was able in an attempt to kiss him on the cheek.

Staring down at her hands on the front of his armor, distracted both by the unexpected recovery of the memory of his title and the strength of her scent with her this close, Inutaishou suddenly felt warm breath on his neck and whipped his head around, lips pulling back from teeth as a snarl built in the back of his throat at the attempted act of dominance… Only to have both die as lips parting for a threatening snarl met lips parting in a gasp of surprise.

Inutaishou blinked in surprise at the power he suddenly felt from the young lady when their lips met; it was similar to the power of a Youkai, with the same wild almost untamable predatory undercurrent of a hanyou, but still different… and the way it was caressing his youki was a definite invitation if its reaction to his unconsciously deepening the kiss was any indication.

The noblewoman's eyes went wide as her breath caught in her throat at the rush she felt when their lips meet; an endless moment later her eyes slid half closed as she pressed her body against him and let the breath out with a small meowling sound in the back of her throat when her rescuer deepened the kiss. Dimly she felt his hand begin to wander over her body, her own working under armor to run over firm muscles; then a moan was suddenly torn from her throat as she realized the hands she felt caressing her were no longer doing so through cloth.

X~X~X~X~X

Angel paused in the shadows of the fence, wanting to make sure the coast was clear before starting for Buffy's back door; after all he wouldn't be much help to anyone if something killed him. He had just decided it was safe when a deafening howl came from the house, rattling the windows of nearby houses and sending a shiver down Angel's spine.

Fearing the worst Angel ran onto the porch and reached for the doorknob, intent on stopping whatever had made that noise from hurting anyone. However, the moment he grabbed the knob his eyes went wide and he would have screamed if he had been able, white lightening like bolts of power flowed over him a split second before throwing him into the neighbor's pool in an semi-conscious, burnt and smoking heap.

X~X~X~X~X

Inutaishou panted lightly as he lowered his head, the echoes from his howl of completion still ringing in his ears, to nuzzle his partner's cheek murmuring words of encouragement as he gently stroked the back of the trembling form clutching itself to him hard enough to make the youkai lord began to worry about her injuring herself.

Slowly the constricting pressure of arms and legs loosened their grips on him, sliding off to rest at her sides on the bed until finally her jaw relaxed enough for the Dog General to slip his shoulder free. Inutaishou glanced at his shoulder and blinked as he found she had actually managed to draw blood.

As he looked at the noblewoman Inutaishou frowned in disbelief at the limp boneless way she was laying. The soft rise and fall of her chest and the fact he still heard her heartbeat were the only things that kept him from wondering if she was alive.

Shaking his head, stunned that someone with the power he had felt from her would be exhausted after only two times, the Greater dog demon gently gathered the unconscious woman in his arms and laid her out on the bed. Inutaishou watched her sleeping form for a moment before fetching her discarded dress to cover her. With a smile he reached out and brushed a bit of hair from her face then started to gather his belongings so he could dress.

The Dog General slid Tetsusaiga and Tenseiga into his obi, turned at looked at the sleeping form with something like regret before exiting. Inutaishou paused on the path that led to the road, turned and cast a barrier over the house he had just left; while it would only last the night it would do to keep out lesser vermin running amok tonight.

With the safety of the strange noblewoman all but assured, the greatest member of the Inu clan to ever live vanished into the darkness.

X~X~X~X~X

Spawn willed her chains to wrap around another group of the damn Borg things, had them grow blade like spikes on each link and then recalled them shredding the Borg into something closely resembling hamburger. Grinning like a maniac under her mask she continued her search for more of her enemies. Now glad that pajama-boy had demoted her to clean up duty after she tried to use that same trick to cut the head off of that nutcase calling himself Apocalypse she was still a bit miffed that he had broken two of her chains to save that scum's life.

~ Yeah, so they will heal but that's beside the point... it's like bucket head said, this is the real world and that fool's idealism is gonna get us, not to mention a lot of the people he claims to want to protect, killed or worse! ~ Spawn almost shuddered at what she had seen these things do to people that had been unfortunate enough to run across them.

Shaking her head the Spawn admitted most of her current hostility was due to the unusual situation she found herself in; usually in battle she could feel her energy being drained, a steady reminder that once she had used it all she was gone-sent back to hell where she'd have to answer for breaking contract with old Belzy.

And except for the few times she had been able to drain the energy from whatever demon they had sent to 'get their treasonous general back with the program or kill her' this week, that was the way it went; her energy slowly leaking away like sand in an hourglass.

But since waking up in this craziness, her energy level had been steadily rising until now she was at nearly the same level as when she first awakened after her return from hell, and it was still rising. Spawn paused and watched the angel battling the devils. She battled the desire to assist but previous experience told her that, for a place as big on love and forgiveness as heaven was supposed to be, they were awfully quick on the trigger to kill any and all hellspawn found on earth without question.

No, if she were to help it would only lead to severe injuries at the hands of the warrior of heaven. If she was lucky… but that didn't stop her lashing out with her chains to slam one of the devils that had gotten behind the angel through a parked minivan and into the wall of a store before fleeing the scene in search of more of these Borg things to take out her frustrations on.

X~X~X~X~X

Having made quick work of the Devils, thanks to the distraction of the unexpected attack, the angel turned and just caught sight of movement on a roof across the street. A single flap of her wings carried the heavenly being too said roof; the angel frowned as she watched something that should have been impossible. A Hellspawn, one of several minions Beelzebub had been forbidden the use of in this dimension, was moving away from her, jumping from one rooftop to the next with an ease that belied the huge chains and cloak draped around its body.

She started to reach out to those of her kind responsible for removing such things, when something about the Spawn caught her attention; not only was this Spawn not dead but its soul while not pure was innocent, bearing none of the taint of one belonging to hell by deed or contract. That egotistical demon lord had dared to infect an innocent living soul he had no claim to with one of his abominations… the mere thought began to enrage her.

"Vengeance is the Lord's, not yours." An English accented voice stated from behind the angel, taking on an amused tone when she jumped in surprise. "Besides, for once the little worm isn't involved, and you have more important things to worry about…"

Spinning to face whoever had spoken to her, the angel blinked in surprise and confusion when she found nothing but the empty air and street below. After spending a moment trying to figure out who had spoken to her, the Angel shook her head and took to wing. She hoped that the mortal lover she had been lying with before finding herself in this place, was safe and unharmed as she looked for some sign as to why she had suddenly appeared here.

X~X~X~X~X

Inutaishou growled low in his throat as he tossed the unconscious Samurai away; so far he had found four Samurai and three Shinobi with no answers to either the location of the soldiers that should be at least trying to protect this place or where he could find the lord of this city.

The Dog General was beginning to find the idea of using the Sounga to destroy the surrounding buildings until the city guard chose to show themselves very appealing. Only the thought of how many innocents would be killed or injured in the process and the knowledge of how much pleasure the sword would take in the destruction kept it firmly in its sheath.

Shaking off his frustrations, Inutaishou continued his search once more ignoring the chaos going on around him for the most part as he searched for someone that could answer his questions. Whether from a human, Youkai, Hanyou, celestial being or mice from Mars, it didn't matter to him as he no longer cared where he got his answers so long as he got them.

Turning down a new road, Inutaishou came to a stop and frowned at the sight of a black and white horseless carriage that, unlike the ones he had seen earlier had red flashing lights on top of it sitting in the road with it doors open.

Curious the Dog General approached the vehicle. As he drew even with its doors Inutaishou noted the dead human male laying in front of the vehicle with his throat torn out and frowned. He was briefly curious about why the unarmed and unarmored man would have stopped before reaching the safety of his home with the chaos that he could still hear going on in the distance.

He had just decided it was probably one of those human things he would never understand when a series of what sounded like thunderclaps followed by sounds of a struggle from the nearby alleyway caught his attention. When he reached the alley he frowned as he found a human dressed identically to dead one he had just left being dragged to the ground by a group of demons he was unfamiliar with.

Once the demons had the human restrained, one of them grabbed the front of its clothing and pulled; clawed hands easily tore the cloth from neck to groin exposing the lacy undergarments that covered her breasts and groin to the demons as the woman's struggles increased several fold.

A growl began to build in Inutaishou's throat as their intentions for the human woman became clear; while Youkai had completely different morals than humans and had almost no taboos concerning nudity or sex they also only had one punishment for crimes involving the latter.

The Youkai lord stormed up the alleyway faster than the eyes of most demons could follow, grabbed the demon that was kneeling between her legs fumbling with its clothing by the base of neck and effortlessly twisted, killing the thing before throwing the body away from the woman as he began to turn his claw techniques on the remaining degenerates.

Less than a minute later it was over; Inutaishou crouched, ignoring the pieces of demon scattered around the alley as he covered her with a robe secreted inside his armor. He picked up the woman up and carried her out of the alley being careful to shield the body of the male dressed as she had been from her view.

As the Dog general carried the woman down the streets he could smell the fear, anger, happiness, gratitude and resentment in her scent… as well as a familiar undercurrent that had continued to grow as he carried her and was beginning to tease a reaction out of him.

"Where are you taking me?" Ellen looked around numbly. Some distant part of her mind still able to access the information from her classes at the academy spoke up, telling her she was more than likely going into shock.

"Do not worry," Inutaishou looked down at the woman and smiled hoping to reassure her. "I will find you somewhere you will be safe my lady, while I seek the lord of this place to attempt to convince him to send troops to help bring an end to this madness."

"Excuse me," Ellen glared at him annoyance clear on her face. "I'm a member of the Sunnydale Police Department, so I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself!"

"So I saw," Inutaishou smirked and shook his head in amusement at the effect the night's events combined with his Youki was having on the woman. "I'm sure you had them right where you wanted them… you were merely waiting for the right moment to make your move."

"Look, don't get me wrong. I'm grateful for the help," she said squirming in his arms slightly trying to get loose. "But I'm not made of glass or some helpless 'little girl' than needs some big strong man to come save me…"

"My lady, I do not doubt the strength of your will. If you were lacking those vermin would have broken you to their will easily…" Inutaishou barked a laugh and fixed her with a pointed look before glancing down to where the robe of the fire-rat had come partly open and raising an eyebrow. "And from what I've seen there is no way that anyone with eyes could mistake you for a child."

Once she saw the state of her borrowed robe, Ellen blushed furiously and quickly pulled it closed. "Who told you, you could look?"

"I was once told that 'when one is given the chance to gaze upon an object of beauty, they are obligated to do so', so how could I not look when given a chance to look upon perfection." Inutaishou smiled disarmingly hoping his flattery would calm the woman's temper.

"Yeah, right, why don't you pull the other one now…" Ellen muttered, looking away to hide the way her blush deepened and her confusion over not being sure if it was caused by her embarrassment from him seeing her like that, annoyance that he expected her to fall for such an obvious tactic or excitement at being flattered like that by the handsome man.

Inutaishou paused as he reached the general area of their destination. Frowning, he sniffed the air trying to pinpoint the location.

The police woman looked around as they came to a sudden stop and blinked as she recognized her apartment building. Ellen turned to look at the man carrying her as she felt him tense only to throw her arms around his neck with a startled yelp as he launched himself and almost seemed to float to the fire escape landing outside her window.

The Taiyoukai barely suppressed his chuckle at the way the woman's heart was racing after his little hop though he couldn't quite keep the smile from his face as he used a small bit of power to unlock the window before pulling it open.

Ellen fumed, her heart still racing, as she saw the small smile on his face knowing that however he had done that he hadn't warned her on purpose hoping to get a reaction out of her. She opened her mouth ready to tear him a new one and then blinked as he easily pulled open the large window she knew she had locked before leaving and seemed to flow through the window before setting her down.

"I will check for intruders before I leave," Inutaishou said as he walked past her to inspect the rest of the dwelling. "Even then you should be safe if you barricade the window we entered through after I've left…"

Ellen looked at the Youkai lord's retreating back in disbelief and the emotional storm that had been building since those things had managed to pin her to the ground in that alleyway broke as a red haze filled her vision.

Inutaishou yelped in surprise as something slammed into him from behind sending him stumbling through the door he had just opened. He tripped over a basket and slammed his head into a sutra hung on the wall as decoration, barely concealing his surprise when it turned out to be real.

Still trying to shake off the effect of the brief contact with the sutra Inutaishou rolled to his feet. He desperately fighting to keep control of his beast, saw Ellen stalking towards him with an unmistakable expression and felt the tenuous hold he had on his instincts slip…

X~X~X~X~X

"Why would they put the stairs on the outside of the building?" Joy mused as she looked for a way to the stairs leading to the window that the strange warrior and the woman that had saved her had disappeared into; finally she used the trash cans to get onto the dumpster beside them so she could get her foot onto the bottom rung of the fire escape.

When she had finally stopped her terrified flight from the monster the elfin harem girl had found herself standing on a deserted street unlike anything she had ever seen before… not that she had ever been allowed to see much. She screamed at the top of her lungs as a pair of arms pulled her into the area between two buildings where she was surrounded by a group of monsters.

Joy remembered the feelings of hope and gratitude that had come over her as the woman had come to her aid, ordering them to release her as she pointed what Joy fervently hoped was some kind of weapon at her captors.

When they ignored her demand, the woman slipped between the two monsters advancing on her, somehow sending both of them to the ground as they attempted to grab her. As the pair lay on the ground the unknown woman came up behind the monster holding her and punched where its kidneys should have been with little to no effect.

But when the monster turned toward its attacker the terrified elf accidentally brought her knee up into its groin which finally made the beast let her go. However, by the time the woman had managed to reach Joy she had become the focus of the monsters attention, so she had pushed the elfin female deeper into the alley away from the advancing monsters and told her run.

So Joy had run down the alley only to turn the corner and find a brick wall at least three times her own height blocking her way. Shivering in fear her eyes darted looking for a way through the wall, or at least someplace to hide, then grabbed her ears as she screamed in fear and pain as thunder seemed to explode behind her.

Ears ringing, driving stabbing pain into her head she slowly backtracked until she could peek around the corner and saw the warrior covering her rescuer in a red robe of some kind before picking her up and leaving.

Despite the power she could sense rolling off the male warrior Joy had decided to follow the perceived safety the pair of warriors represented tentatively until she noticed the way most of the monsters were giving the warriors a wide berth, then she moved to keep herself so that she was just out of arms reach of the pair.

Although they hadn't shown any indications of knowing she was following them, Joy was pretty sure that at least the male was aware of her presence, but had correctly labeled her as not being a threat. When they had reached this building the male had made an incredible leap to the balcony of the window, leaving her to either stay where she was or find her own way inside. The sounds of the chaos still going on around her had her quickly checking the door. Finding it locked she began to search for another way inside and that was when she noticed the ladder leading to the metal stairs on the outside of the building.

After a little difficulty Joy finally reached the top of the ladder and climbed onto the lowest of the balconies and after looking around nervously for anything that might try to hurt her began to climb the stairs that connected each floor to the next.

Joy smiled as reached the window the pair had disappeared into, proud of having been able to find a way to reach it. Her look of pride turned into an expression of shock when she peeked into the window and saw the female warrior toss the male across the room; twisting in mid-air the male landed on his feet and charged the woman. The woman side-stepped his charge, grabbed his arm and used it to plant him flat on his back on the floor and his swords were sent flying across the room.

As Joy watched the pair of warriors battling, their fighting slowly began to take on the look of some kind of an increasingly erotic dance. An aroused flush creeping up her cheeks as the female elf found herself comparing and adding some of what she saw to her knowledge of foreplay; because she had to admit watching the way they were brushing, rubbing, grasping and pulling each other was certainly seeming to have a similar effect on all those present.

X~X~X~X~X

Giles closed the tome he was reading and rubbed his eyes in frustration; it had been two hours since Willow had passed through the wall of the library and he was still no closer to finding a solution. Of course the fact that she had been hovering over his shoulder since discovering that even if she knew what she was looking for she couldn't turn the tome's pages didn't help his rapidly fraying nerves or his search for an answer.

"Any luck…?" The scantily clad girl turned ghost asked in a hopeful tone.

"No." If he didn't need any and all information the girl could provide him he would have sent her to find the others, although he acknowledged that much of his frustration was over the knowledge that given what Willow said Buffy had been wearing, it was likely that a new slayer had been called already… Shaking off that line of thought the Watcher turned and fixed the girl with the look he usually reserved for when Buffy isn't taking something seriously or Xander started making jokes at inappropriate times. "Let's go over this again... Tell me everything you can remember."

Willow swallowed and began telling him everything she knew for the third time… even as she searched her mind for anything new that might help.

X~X~X~X~X

The short figure looked down on Sunnydale from where he floated about a foot above the roof of its highest building. It had taken him very little time after appearing here to figure out what had happened to him, and he was not amused.

The young man tapped his chin thoughtfully, trying to decide exactly how to get even with Janus for getting him dragged into this. As he looked over the chaos going on below him, a large devious smile slowly spread across his face as an idea began to form rapidly taking shape. It would mean having to avoid this dimension for a few centuries and probably earn him another punishment from 'dear old daddy' but it would definitely make things interesting for old two heads…

"You know this just might be fun after all!" He chuckled and he rubbed his hands together. White hair began to whip around his large pointed ears and eyes began to glow green as he began to gather his energy. Finally, having gathered enough power that the air around him crackled with small bolts of green lightning, he turned towards an array of antennas on the roof and began to chant.

"People of Sunnydale I find you vile, sitting there in pure denial, villains you free, while heroes you cage, so from now on the rules I do change."

Chant finished, green light shot from his eyes and mouth striking the antennas. The array glowed green for a second before releasing a wave of green energy that swept across the city and continued outwards in an expanding circle of power that passed through walls, people, trees, stones and wards with equal ease until finally dying out shortly after passing through San Francisco.

The spellcaster fell to his knees, more from the lightheadedness of releasing so much energy than any weakness caused by the spell. He pushed his hair out of his face and giggled at the thought of the wrench he had just thrown into a certain group of tight asses' well oiled machine.

Normally he would have avoided mixing magicks at almost any cost, but this time he felt it was reasonably safe. After all, while Oberon's children were people of order and were mostly neutral in the war between the light and dark, the Puck was, and would always be, a true child of chaos.

X~X~X~X~X

Mayor Richard Wilkins the third, not to mention first and second, sat straight up in bed eyes wide as a wave of magic unlike anything he ever felt before washed over him. Unlike the harmless bit of chaos magic that he had felt start up earlier which was aimed at the populace and posed no real threat to him, in the aftermath of this wave he could feel really dangerous changes taking place.

Channels long held close through blood sacrifices combined with the power of the hellmouth now surged with earth magic once more; the path of leylines changed long ago through pacts with powerful demons returned to their proper course causing a small but notably growing shift start in the power coming from the hellmouth. Even before the earth magic reached it, it started mixing with the changing energy the hellmouth was giving off as the process of its realigning itself began...

The mage paled as he racked his mind for some way to stop over one hundred years of preparations from going up in smoke. His face steadily reddening in barely contained rage Wilkins jumped out of bed and threw on his clothes. With luck, if he hurried another sacrifice might be enough to restore the 'dams' that had taken him so long to build. If that could be done the rest could be fix easily… all it would take is time and the right 'price'.

And after all he had done for the people of Sunnydale, the least they owed him was a little blood, sweat and tears to make his own dreams come true.


End file.
